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An overview of Crash Magazine

The magazine was published from 1984 until it's unfortunate demise in 1992.

Games for the ZX Spectrum effectively ceased to be released in 1993 - so it is no surprise that the magazine ended up defunct at that point.

The first issue was published in February of 1984 (when I turned twelve, it makes me feel old!) and some of the notable games reviewed were 3D Ant Attack, Lunar Jetman and 3D Deathchase, which ended up being given the accolade of 'game of the month'.

A few issues in (around issue five I think) and the game of the month moniker was dropped in favour of a 'Crash Smash' rating.

Games that excelled were given a Smash (Generally scoring 90% or more in an overall rating) which eventually became a badge of honour that software houses craved.

If a game was rated as a 'Crash Smash' then good sales were almost guaranteed.

Newsfield Publications

Founded by Roger Kean, Franco Frey and illustrator Oliver Frey in 1983.

Newsfield was based in 'sleepy' Ludlow in Shropshire, England.

With the snappy editing of Kean and the superb artistry of Frey - this and all the other Newsfield publications soon became popular, with Crash, ZZap64 and Amtix! amongst the most read magazines for their respective machines.

Game Of The Month in Crash Magazine: Deathchase on the ZX Spectrum

The Early Crash Smash Logo

This Crash Smash logo was used up until issue 12 (January 1985)

The redesigned Crash Smash logo

This Crash Smash logo was used right until the end of the magazine's life

Issue One Of Crash Magazine

I can still remember my dad handing me a copy of issue one of Crash Magazine

Why I was so lucky with Crash Magazine

I was so lucky when it came to the magazine, and even any of the other Newsfield publications.

Newsfield magazines were printed in my hometown before being sent out for distribution.

My dad (bless him) worked for the Royal Mail and had to go to the printers every week on a mail run. The print manager and my dad got on well so he used to give my dad a freshly printed copy of at first Crash magazine, then each of the other Newsfield prints.

At the very least I would have my brand new and pristine copy it a good ten days before it hit the newsagents shelves.

Sometimes, depending on which day my dad was at the printers I would get a copy 'hot off the press' from the first batch printed.

There were definitely a few instances where I was the first person in the whole of the UK to read the brand new copy of Crash, or ZZap etc. How lucky I was!

Break times at school were never the same again as a group of us huddled round a copy of our favourite magazine, getting a heads up on which games were worth getting hold of.

Whilst mere mortals had to wait for more than a week to see if the latest game from Ocean or Elite was any good, we already knew the score. Good, good times.

Over the years I built up an almost complete collection of Newsfield publications - my magazine rack was bursting at the seams.

Let's just say I was a tad miffed when my dear mum decided to throw the whole lot away...

Crash Smash - a worthy accolade

As the magazine became more and more popular, software companies realised the influence it held over paying gamers.

If you received a good score for a game in the magazine then generally more people would go and buy it. Anything over an 80% rating was considered an essential purchase - and if your game hit the magical 90% (or over) mark (or 9/10 in the adventure section of the mag) and received the coveted 'Crash Smash' award then you were onto a winner.

Sometimes the cassette cover sleeve would have the 'Crash Smash' logo printed on it so you just knew that the game on the tape was quality.

Some notable titles that were smashed include:

Driller - received a whopping overall score of 97%

Technician Ted - received a whopping overall score of 96%

Winter Games - received a superb overall score of 93%

Mikie - the excellent arcade conversion of the Konami game received a fantastic overall score of 93%

Commando - the excellent arcade conversion of the CapCom game received a whopping overall score of 94%

Way of the Exploding Fist - the first proper beat em up game on the ZX Spectrum (I'm not including Bug Bytes Kung Fu as it was far too limited) received an overall score of 92%

Ocean SoftwareOcean Software was one of the biggest developers of arcade games during the 1980s and 1990s

Realtime SoftwareRealtime Software were a games developing company that were active in the 1980s and early 1990s. Founded in 1984 by three university students, Ian Oliver, Andrew Onions and Graeme Baird, Realtime Software...

Any other Crash readers?

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

BR

7 years ago

That's a nice article - I am the same age as you and it was indeed a good time. There were great games coming out weekly it seemed, with an (un)healthy playground tape swapping scene alongside being huddled around the mags. Crash was always hotly anticipated - I have the DVD of all the scans done by a bloke called Mort. Look up 'Mort's Magazine Scans' if you have not done so already!!

AUTHOR

Martin Allan

8 years agofrom Sunny Scotland

Glad you enjoyed it! :-)

But - I didn't live in Ludlow. The newsfield mags were actually printed in Carlisle (perhaps other places too, but as far as I know it was only printed in Carlisle) which is where I grew up. So unfortunately I didn't know any of the reviewers...

The Newsfield mags were great - and getting them hot off the press was brilliant!

ZX Zeido

8 years ago

WOW.... getting Crash fresh from printing, what an honor!

So, you lived in Ludlow.... you must have known some of the reviewers, several of them were school kids too.

Nice post.

AUTHOR

Martin Allan

8 years agofrom Sunny Scotland

Thanks for the .net link Uridium!

Yeah - we'll create one for ZZap (and Amtix) in the near future. The Newsfield mags were brilliant.

uridium5

8 years ago

p.s I think you might wanna mention this site too

http://www.zxspectrum.net You can play all the games online (apart from Ultimate, probably because they are still owned by Rare)

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